Me and Mi
by TheWritingMustache
Summary: [AU] They're complete opposites in every way, shape, and form. They should not be friends. But they are. They should not care about each other so much. But they do. They should not fall in love with each other. But they will. Because some stories, start and end, the same way you always expect them to. [M/M, AlexDes]
1. Freshman - September

Because there aren't enough stupid stories like this one between these two. Ad thus, I am correcting that problem.

* * *

Like how most stories go, theirs started just as anyone would expect. They met, the first day of high school, with lockers right next to each other, only because it was alphabetized and that's just how they happened to meet. He was an Me, and Desmond was an Mi. Lockers that hugged each other, and that first morning they hadn't acknowledge each other, just accepted the presence of another boy next to them, and their lockers slammed shut and they were running off in opposite directions to class.

They don't see each other again until two class periods later, when they're out on the blacktop and milling about as they wait for their P.E teacher to call out roll. And it's how they learn each others names, each other's faces.

The teacher calls out, "Mercer, Alexander!"

And a small boy responds with, "Here"

The teacher calls out, "Miles, Desmond!"

And Desmond calls back the same. They turn to look at each other, the two boys in their P.E class with Ms for a last name. They just stare at each other from across their class.

Desmond is a boy of fourteen, like most freshman. He's one of the taller freshman, having been smacked repeatedly with the puberty stick countless times over the course of middle school. And he's still expected to keep growing throughout high school, definitely will be hitting in the six foot mark or over by the time he graduates. He's like every other boy, remarkably thin, but still able to devour three times his own body weight every day and be fine.

Alexander, from what Desmond can see, is his exact opposite. One of those unfortunate kids who hasn't grown since he entered middle school, and still looked like a sixth grader. He's a scrawny thing, a miracle all on its own that he can even hold himself up on those sticks he calls legs. He's small, and pale, and his angry little face is framed by glasses that take up most of it, as if he has yet to grow into those as well. Even his clothes just hang off him, and the whole look just screams "feed me, feed me!"

Since it's the first day, the teacher swings them all through the locker rooms, put on a lock, put your clothes in, etc. The lockers are small, big enough to fit in shoes and their uniform. Naturally, their lockers ended up being, right next to each other once more.

"So" Desmond suddenly starts, just deciding to break the ice, might as well since he's going to be stuck with this kid for the next eight months. "Gonna be a long year, huh Alexander?"

The other boy looks up at him with narrowed eyes behind those gigantic, thick frames, and says to him in the perfect high-pitched little boy voice; "Shut the fuck up you stupid mouth breather….It's just Alex"

And that is how it began between them.

**x-X-X-x**

It becomes routine, this is how they meet each other each day after that. Every morning, if Desmond catches him at their lockers, he gives Alex a hearty good morning. And Alex will ignore him, or send him a withering glare, or just tells him to "fuck off". If they happen to meet each other between classes, Desmond will greet him again, or just say "bye Alex!" when they depart. Maybe Alex will give him the cold shoulder, or throw a middle finger in his direction. During P.E, they mostly ignore each other.

The first day they changed into their uniforms, Desmond can't help but sneak glances at Alex. He's such a skeletal little thing, collarbone and ribs poking out of his skin, practically no fat to be found on him. He is a tiny little boy who needs to put on at least another hundred pounds to be considered healthy. Alex never looks at him in the locker room while they change. Not because it's awkward, but because Desmond is forever his exact opposite. The contrast is startling between them when they pull of their shirts and pull another one over it. There's a thousand questions burning in Desmond's mind, but he never asks them.

If Desmond finishes changing first, he'll go and wait outside the locker room door for Alex. They're certainly not friends, not comrades, not buddies, not anything. Hardly even acquaintances. Yet Desmond waits, for whatever reason. The first time he did that, the look Alex gave him could have killed someone. And Desmond just gave him a small smile, and they made their way out to class.

Class begins with roll call, then a run around the track. Desmond is usually to always the first to finish. Alex is always most definitely last. Even the girls who don't like to run and would rather gossip to each other finish the lap before Alex does. No one says anything to his face, but everyone is laughing behind his back, whispering dumb things to each other. Whether Alex notices or not, he doesn't show it. Just bends over with his hands on his knees and tries to keep his breakfast down, if he ate any at all that morning.

After P.E, they don't see each other again until it's lunchtime. Alex doesn't bring a lunch from home, Desmond eventually notes. He concludes he must get it from the cafeteria (God bless his poor stomach). Desmond doesn't visit his locker again after lunch, so the last time he might catch a glimpse of Alex is when the final bell rings and releases them from school.

If Desmond catches Alex at their lockers, he'll always say to him; "Catch ya later, Alex!"

At the end of the first week, as students tear ass out of classrooms, through the halls, and out of the school to enjoy their weekends, Desmond's customary goodbye changes to "See ya monday, Alex!"

Much to his delighted surprise, Alex mumbles back. "See ya monday, Desmond"

Such a fantastic thing to start the weekend to.

**x-X-X-x**

The second week Alex is slightly more talkative. Talkative as in, he starts to say hi back to Desmond. Ot at least his name is used more. Instead of plain old "fuck off", he gets "fuck off Desmond" in that high-pitched voice only one octave higher than Alvin and the Chipmunks. Desmond doesn't mind, only merely impressed that something so squeaky sounding could put so much annoyance into such a strong word. But it's still an improvement, and Desmond takes it as is.

The second week is also when they start something in P.E, a simple crash course in baseball. Without much thought, Desmond immediately pairs up with Alex to toss the ball around upon demand by their teacher. They both just sorta realize that this is how it's gonna be the rest of the school year. When it comes down to teams of two, no one is gonna want to pair up with the weakest kid in class.

If anything, at least they get the most exercise out of a two-man game of catch. Alex can't catch the ball to save his life. Nor can he throw it very far. They can stand as close to each other as they'd like, and that ball wouldn't hit its intended target. Desmond did his damn best to just not outright clock Alex in the head with the ball, and playing as carefully as possible was painstaking. He reflects though, that this is must of how it had been when he was young and his older brothers were teaching him to play sports. How careful they were, how they had to ease off just for him. Is this how they felt back then?

With those thoughts in mind, Desmond enjoys their terrible came of catch a lot more. He supposes that maybe Alex doesn't have an older brother to teach him anything. Or maybe he did and his brother wasn't very sporty. Or if he didn't have a brother at all, he just didn't play outside a lot. Well, he doesn't need to have a brother or anything, maybe a sister worked too. Girls like baseball. Maybe his sister wasn't sporty either. Or maybe he didn't have one. But Desmond didn't ask him.

Instead, at the end of class, Desmond claps a hand on Alex's shoulder and says, "Gonna be a long year, huh Alex?"

Alex glares back at him and tells him to shut the fuck up, mouth breather.

**x-X-X-x**

It took a week for Desmond to learn it, but he shares some of the same teachers with Alex. Which shouldn't be surprising, there are how many freshman teachers for each subject? But what surprises him is that they have the same science teacher, two class periods after the other. Desmond has Math right after P.E, and Alex has Science at the same time. Desmond gets out of Math a minute early that day, and so he's outside the science room sooner than usual. The bell rings, students come pouring out of the room.

And Desmond spots, between backpacks and still taller freshman, he sees little Alex fighting his way through the crowd. And he doesn't think much of it at first, but by the time Science begins and ends, the same the realization sets in. And after Science, it's lunchtime. And at lunch, at their lockers, shoving books inside, Desmond asks, "Do you have Stephens for Earth Science during fourth period?"

"Yeah" Alex replies back as if the information isn't new.

"I have her fifth" Desmond grins at him.

"Great, I don't really care" Alex slams his locker shut and is off to go stand in that long ass lunch line. Desmond isn't going to let it go that quickly however. During lunch, he digs out his schedule of classes. After lunch, after sixth and seventh period, as they gather their things for the end of the day, Desmond can't help but follow Alex away from their lockers.

"So who else do you have?" Desmond asks him. "I have Hassen, McCann, Fitzpatrick, Stonsi, and Lopez"

"Just Stephens" Alex answers. "And Giles, of course. Why do you care?"

Desmond doesn't have answer for that, so he just shrugs. He just wanted to know. And Alex sighs at him.

"You're so fucking weird"

"See you later, Alex"

"Later, Desmond"

**x-X-X-x**

September is nearly over when Desmond finally catches Alex having lunch, alone. Sometimes he sees the other boy coming back into their Science class to eat there, some sort of whatever with the teacher. But the first time Desmond sees him eating lunch alone, it doesn't sit well with him and he seeks to fix that. Their school is an open campus, so everyone eats outside at lunch. There is a cafeteria, but it's small and crowded, so it's just easier to eat around planters or in the halls, on patches of grass or at smaller tables.

Alex sits in a corner that somehow isn't covered in students. Desmond didn't mean to find him there, just passing by because he made a quick run to Lucy's locker, and was on his way back. Just the moment he sees Alex alone, little cardboard tray of food to one side, his books in his lap, Desmond immediately stomps over him.

"Pack your shit up dude, I'm getting you a real place to sit" Desmond commands. Alex of course, fights him on it. No Desmond, what are you doing, go away, I'm fine, look I'm busy, Desmond, Desmond please. You fucktard, leave me alone. Goddammit why are you so stubborn? _Desmond_.

Desmond pulls him across campus to a group of tables between the cafeteria and the band room. That is where Desmond and his friends sit for lunch. "Yo guys" Desmond says to them as he plops Alex down on the bench. "This is Alex, he sits with us now"

Alex is mortified. Desmond's friends are relatively overjoyed. They all happily introduce themselves, Clay, Lucy, Rebecca. Except Shaun. Shaun turns his nose up at Alex, as if how dare this little miscreant is brought before them. But Shaun treats everyone like that, and thus, no one in their group really gives a shit. Alex hardly says a word to any of them, just stares at them like they're some foreign aliens who'll jump him and dissect him at any second. When the bell rings to signify the end of lunch, Alex offers a hurried goodbye and scampers away.

"I like him" Clay grins as they walked to class. "I've never met someone more talkative"

**x-X-X-x**

"You're a dick" is the first thing Alex says to him after school.

"They're not bad ya know" Desmond replies. "I think you'd like them. They like you already"

"You're full of shit" Alex snarls at him.

"Come sit with us again tomorrow"

"_No_"

The familiar slamming of a locker.

"See ya later, Alex"

"Fuck off, Desmond"

**x-X-X-x**

Alex avoids him for two days, as best he can. He doesn't acknowledge Desmond at all in P.E, doesn't look in his direction, doesn't talk to him, pretends he just doesn't exist. Desmond thought it stupid the first day. But at the end of that day, it hurt when Alex didn't say goodbye to him after school, just stormed off without a word, without so much as a glance. It was painful the second day, because it was starting to drive him up a wall that Alex was so determined to ignore him.

And he starts to doubt himself. He thinks about it some, talks about it with Clay, just for a little confirmation. Clay tells it to him straight, Desmond pretty much has been forcing himself on Alex for the last couple weeks. Similar last names and neighboring lockers is not a friendship make. But Clay does say he admires Desmond for taking this lonely little half-pint under his wing.

Most everyone in their collective freshman class knows who Alex Mercer is. A scrawny little nerd who is already blowing everyone out of the water with grades. With his high intellect. How he spends whole class periods being a teacher's pet because he's the only one with enough balls to speak up and say something, and it's usually something that no one can really comprehend. That's he rude and insulting to others. He keeps to himself.

And then there's Desmond, who didn't know jack shit, and because of that, smiles at Alex everyday, talks to him, everything. Desmond cheers up a little knowing he's the only thing that's friendly to Alex. And in turn, Alex is slowly warming up to him. At least he feels the other boy is.

The third day, Alex cracks. Alex takes longer than usual to leave the locker room, yet Desmond still waits. And he stills walk with him to class. And on their way, Alex finally speaks.

"I miss you" Alex says quietly. "Where do you guys eat lunch again?"

And everything is right once more in their small world.

* * *

Well, you know how it goes by now. Updated whenever, blah blah blah, expect M/M blah blah blah, cursing blah blah blah, teenager shit blah blah blah.

Blah blah blah see ya next update, blah


	2. Freshman - October

You guys are getting really lucky with these long ass chapters._ For now._

* * *

October is a month of many things. The slow transition from summer to fall (because like fuck it stops being hot as hell in October). It's football season. It's Homecoming. It's Halloween. Things Alex normally doesn't give a shit about. And he happily would have kept that up, but right away Desmond is dragging him down the dark, terrible path of having a fuck to give.

Desmond is kinda like an infectious little disease that way. He was just there one day and wouldn't go the hell away. And by now, Alex had learned to stop fighting it. There was no point in it. The one he did, Desmond kept looking at him like a kicked puppy. So, he doesn't fight it. Not anymore. Better to let it happen.

He lets Desmond integrate him into his circle of friends. He lets everyone talk over his head with their inside jokes he doesn't understand yet, their strange way of speaking to each other, how they're so open with each other. He's just the ghost that sits next to Desmond at lunchtime, and that's fine. He just does homework and eats his lunch.

He doesn't fight Desmond's usual greetings and goodbyes. Doesn't fight how Desmond will wait on him during P.E. There's a lot of things Alex doesn't fight. At least, not with Desmond.

**x-X-X-x**

Homecoming is a hectic time for the school. It's in three weekends from the start of October, and the school is losing its mind over it. Tickets aren't on sale yet, and students are already rushing to find dates. Alex finds it all stupid, and pointless, and a complete waste of time. He can't find a single reason to get excited about it.

It's only more annoying at their lunch table. It's Clay and Desmond arguing over who gets to ask Lucy out to Homecoming this year. As if they had been planning it for some time. Lucy is never there to hear the arguments, she's on the Homecoming Committee, and thus, is absent from their table most days, thankfully. If she had to hear the fights about herself, she'd probably knock Clay and Desmond into next week.

"Yo, Alex" Rebecca addresses him at some point, just so there's some other voice at their table that's not the incredible, arguing dunderheads. "Who you going to Homecoming with?"

And Alex blinks at her slowly, caught off guard by the question, and just being addressed in general.

"No one" he says to her. "I'm not going"

All conversation drops at the table, and everyone is staring at him. He almost wishes he could just spontaneously combust to avoid having them stare at him.

"Not going?" Clay repeats. "What do you mean you're not going? _Everyone's_ going to Homecoming!"

"You don't really really need a date" Rebecca adds. "It's fun to go just to go. We're all going, and we're all just gonna hang out"

As delightful as that sounds, there's already a million excuses running through his head as to why he can't has nothing to wear. He's not a party kind of person. He can't afford it. And if he could, he'd have to find a babysitter for his sister. Extra money to get someone to watch her for a couple hours. And then he wouldn't come home until later.

"I just" he starts, knowing his attempt at defense is useless. "I just…can't" and he ducks his head so he doesn't have to look at them. It takes several moments, but they quickly resume whatever it was they doing before he spoke. Alex can feel his ears burning.

**x-X-X-x**

He thinks about it more, Homecoming. As much as Alex doesn't like the idea of going, and how tight money is around his house, he feels utterly embarrassed that he might have disappointed the group. Desmond didn't bring it up after school, which Alex was thankful for. And he knows they're trying to include him more into their activities. The group had been friends for years, some before middle school, some since it. He is an outsider, the new guy, fresh meat, he knows nothing.

But they want him to attend Homecoming with them. And it does sound nice, actually being invited to hang out with them. An expensive night out, but one nonetheless that he's never been to before. But it's not gonna happen, there's just no way. He can't do anything fun.

Alex's first stop along the way home is the nearest elementary school to their house. He kinda can't wait for the day his sister is old enough to walk herself home safely so they don't need to invest precious money into after school daycare. Dana is only five years old, her first year of school as a kindergartner. Better than having her in some other daycare program, but he still worries about her all the same.

Like every afternoon he comes for her, Dana launches her tiny body at him to squeeze him around the middle. They don't really look too much alike, and at first it's hard to tell they're even siblings. Alex's hair is dark raven color, Dana's is reddish brown. Alex already has a strong nose, hers is much softer. Their chins are similar, but their real family connection are the eyes. Their pale, piercing ice blue eyes.

(And yet their mother still bitches and moans about her little bastards, and how they're damn lucky they got her eyes, the only reason she can claim them as her own, or so she says, but she says a lot of shit that's not true so Alex can never believe her)

They've been walking home most days. So busy with school, Alex has been meaning to fix up their bikes. Dana's tires are flat, and his brakes need a little re-tweaking. Which is a shame, since Alex just recently took off the training wheels from Dana's back and taught her to ride without them. And she couldn't even use the damn thing because she'd just tear the tires up riding flat. A project for the weekend when he doesn't have tests to study or homework to do.

As they walk home, tiny hand in tiny hand, Dana babbles on endlessly about her day. What she did, what she ate for lunch, what she played with at recess, what was going on in and around the school (to her knowledge). Alex half listens to what she says, but always makes sure he acknowledges what she says every now and again.

They get home around the time most people start to from work. Which is another reason why Alex wishes he had their bikes fixed up, so they could get home sooner. Especially as the days began to shorten, and night would fall faster. He positively hates being out on the streets around sunset, especially with Dana in tow. It's just not safe for a little girl like her to be out and about so late.

But it could just be his big brother instinct talking. A big brother, he later reflects, who is too devoted to his little sister to leave her alone for just one night.

**x-X-X-x**

The week of Homecoming is incredibly hectic. And it only serves to turn Alex off more and more to the idea. It becomes a sort of Spirit Week for the school, and he hated it. He's sure he would have been able to tolerate it if his group didn't rope him into their antics. The first day, Desmond greeted him by slapping a sticker on his cheek.

"Keep that on the rest of the day" Desmond told him.

"Ow, you fuck" Alex told him back.

But he wore it, consistently scratched at it until it stopped itching, but he wore it. At P.E, Desmond had stickers all over his face and neck and arms, like really dumb, stupid tattoos. "You look like a moron" Alex said to him. Desmond responded with slapping another sticker on Alex's other cheek. Wearing stickers, they found, during P.E was a terrible idea. Because they got all sweaty, and either the stickers slid off or got coated in sweat, and dried in that sweat. They spent about their entire time after class scrubbing the stickers off Desmond, and managed to get to their next classes the moment the bell rang. Lunch time that same day, the whole group had stickers plastered to their bodies.

The group consensus was, they were all idiots. Even Shaun.

The second day, Desmond shoved a giant, floppy hat on Alex's head. "Wear this the rest of the day" Desmond told him. And Alex did, feeling even stupider than he did the day previous. At P.E, Desmond was wearing a similar hat he refused to take off, and did everything in class without taking it off. At lunch, the silly hatness only increased, and the group consensus was that this was a brilliant idea. Except for Shaun, who wasn't wearing one and was promised that he would suffer for this unspiritness, and how could he _not, _and even Alex was more spirited about this than he was.

Which absolutely killed Alex on the inside.

The third day, the only thing that was worth noting was Clay and Desmond finally settling on who was taking Lucy to Homecoming as their date. They had decided, like true gentlemen, would _both_ be her date, and _both_ take her out that night. Alex and Shaun had finally mutually agreed that they were idiots. But when Lucy was informed, she was nothing short of delighted.

The fourth day was, in Alex's opinion, completely unnecessarily annoying. A pep rally. Dear god, _why_. Sure, it fell upon the same class period as P.E, so that was a day he didn't have to deal with exercise and embarrassing himself in front of class. But being crammed into the gym was not his idea of fun. And the only reason he didn't skip it was because Desmond insisted he go. The rest of their friends were, so he had to as well. When Alex accused him of peer pressure, Desmond insisted he still go, to at least support Lucy who had been working hard on this for weeks.

And only because Alex didn't want to disappoint her, he went. It was mostly him with his head between his knees and trying to block out all the noise and sweating up a storm regardless because this many people in one room made it incredibly hot and stuffy.

Homecoming week ended, of course, with the big Homecoming football game. A game Alex didn't attend (still no one to watch Dana for him that night), but the Homecoming parade he didn't miss. The lights could be seen from anywhere in town, the music from down the street. Alex took his sister out into the middle of their street, held her up on his shoulders and let her watch the fireworks exploding in the sky. How their local high school got away with fireworks every year, no one really knew. But watching his sister's delighted little face light up the way it did made it worthwhile.

Monday at lunch, there was a semi-fabulous re-telling of Saturday night from the group. And it was everything Alex expected it would be. A lot of kids grinding to dubstep. Terrible DJ. A couple fights from other schools. Terrible food. Yet, what Alex found most curious, was that they still had fun. Some incredible fun. And just listening to them re-tell their night, laughing at this and that, Alex felt left out. Yet, determined to attend the next dance with them, because even after all that, it all sounded like fun.

**x-X-X-x**

"Do you guys still trick-or-treat?" Alex asks the group one day. With Homecoming over and done with, Halloween was rapidly approaching, and Dana was not letting him forget it. And as much as Alex hated Halloween, he wasn't going to disappoint her and not take her around for candy. As luck would have had it, of course the group still went trick-or-treating. And they immediately got excited about it, because what, Alex, asking them what they did for anything? It could only mean he wanted to go with them!

"No, no, no" he had said to them as forcefully as he could in his almost-chipmunk voice. "I have a little sister I have to take out. And our neighborhood is shit. I am just curious if one of yours' is better"

"Desmond's" they said. "Desmond's is the best"

As described by Clay, Desmond lived over in the Village, where all the really nice, really big houses were all up in the hills. And his neighborhood? Gave out the absolute best shit. The best candy, king sized bars, the works. If they all took their bikes, they could cover some serious ground, really fill up their bags. Nothing Alex and Dana can't handle. They bike three miles and back every few weeks to the grocery store. A couple inclines weren't gonna kill them.

So it's decided upon that the Mercers will trick-or-treat with the group. When Alex picks up Dana that day and tells her the news, she nearly explodes from excitement. Candy bars bigger than her head? Sign her up for that! The only thing against them is that Halloween is on a Tuesday (because why on earth would it be on a Friday or a weekend?), and he doesn't want Dana out too late on a school night and have her be cranky the next morning.

So he strikes a deal. He makes Dana promise, she can only have two whole candy bars, and a couple small ones, then she can't eat any more candy that night, and has to go to bed the moment they get home, whenever that is. And if she can do all that, the remainder of her candy, she can take to school. Dana, with all her other worldly five year old wisdom, thinks it over as they walk home. She hums to herself, plays with one of her pigtails, skips over cracks in the sidewalks, kicks newspapers into the streets, and "Boo!"s a cat up a tree.

"I have comsimiered your offer" Dana eventually says as they stand at the corner and wait to cross the street. "And I will, uhm, ehm, what's the word for-"

"Accept it" Alex says for her.

"Yes! But" and she looks up at him as deadly and serious as she possibly can. "If I do, I get one of your candy bars too"

More amused than anything by her counter offer, Alex agrees. Dana goes back to being an adorable, bouncy little girl who really needs to work on her bartering skills when it comes to her big brother who doesn't even like Halloween and doesn't even like candy all that much. If anything, she'll get his whole bag too.

* * *

Thanks for reading you guys I really appreciate it!


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